Top Blog Partners

Arsenal new boy Xhaka and transfer target Rodriguez show real class

I have definitely been happy with what I have seen from the Arsenal and Switzerland international star Granit Xhaka so far at Euro 2016, after the central midfielder followed his Man of the Match performance in the first game with another performance of real class in his second match against Romania yesterday.

Once again Xhaka was heavily involved and his 120 touches of the ball was much more than any other player on the pitch from either side, the next highest being the 87 of the Swiss defender Fabian Schar and from the Romanian team only the keeper made even half as many.

With a passing accuracy of 88 percent, even though 20 of his passes were attempted long balls, the Gunners look to have signed a real class act who can keep his team ticking over. He also made a few key tackles and interceptions and seems to have a great reading of the game and even though his position was the deep lying midfielder, Xhaka still made the joint most key passes of any player with three.

The other player with three key passes was the reported Arsenal transfer target Ricardo Rodriguez and I was also impressed with the Switzerland left back. I still want to see him tested more defensively but his energy and application up and down the left flank was very good and his delivery from open play, corners and direct free kicks was good as well.

Unfortunately for these two Arsenal related stars, their performances were not enough to guarantee progression to the next round as the Swiss could only draw after conceding a daft early penalty and squandering a number of good chances. Next up for them is France and that game should really test their defensive capabilities.

Yes looks like a very good acquisition from Wenger already, the real test will come gains France , where he has to play against two of the very best Payet and kante,. Who will dominate remains to be seen

Xhaka has played well so far. I watched him in his previous club in Germany so am not surprised at his effort. Rodriquez excites me too. I haven’t seen so much of him. Saw him in the champions league last season and their game against Romania. Thought he played really well. Love the way he attacks and defend.. .

Vardy wouldn’t be a good fit if we played like we do with Giroud, we would have to play slightly deeper and attack with speed, this is actually more of a Wenger style than having a slow cumbersome CF who he has tried to replace each year since losing RvP.

Assuming no more signings I think this would get the best out of Giroud… but then we shouldn’t change formation for an average player like Giroud.

Sticking to the wenger formation and treating myself to 2 signings 😛

Cech
Bellerin-Per or Gab-Kos-Monreal
Xhaka-Cazorla/Elneny(I like Cazorla but his age will stop him playing all our games)
Mahrez-Ozil-Alexis
Vardy

Mahrez and Vardy worked well together and Arsenal do pass back to try and pull teams out the box, the problem has been Coquelin hasn’t got the vision to truly play with deep possession but Cazorla and Xhaka have excellent passing and we could trust them on the ball.

Arsenal are getting more players who can shoot from outside the box as well, this will help ensure that opposition players have to come out and challenge our players and this will leave space for someone like Vardy to exploit.

I think the Arsenal board and Wenger need to get the thanks and if we say thank you to those people who work hard rather than a deity then maybe the human beings will feel the reward more and be more inclined to treating us fans a bit more?

Isn’t it kinda insulting to thank a deity over the human being who actually managed to get this transfer done early and before the Euros pushed his price up to over £60mil….